With everything that happened this year, the choice of a vice president and realizing their purpose should be more appreciated. More importantly than presiding over the U.S. Senate, the vice president has to be able to take over the role of president if he is unable to perform his duties. We know this but don’t really expect it to happen.
Democrats faced a challenging and sad situation as Joe Biden’s mental health noticeably descended during his term. The choice of Kamala Harris as his vice president attracted blacks and women to support the party, however, there needs to be proper qualifications of leadership.
As Harris is busy on the campaign trail, the question continues of who is actually in charge of the presidency now and why wasn’t the 25th Amendment invoked before the troubling and telling debate between Biden and Donald Trump in June.
“Since the drafting of the Constitution, the guidelines for removing a president due to a disability have presented a myriad of constitutional challenges,” stated the TheHill.com. Both Harris and a majority of the Cabinet would have to declare the president unable to perform the duties of office. There is a risk that Harris could be seen as a “usurper” to the presidency, while cabinet members risk their chance of re-election by even challenging their leader. The legal proceedings involved take time.
Time is a crucial factor in how this played out. Republicans criticized Harris for winning delegates virtually instead of by proper standards. However, it was unrealistic to go through another process involving other candidates. Not only to come up with a campaign so quickly, but only Harris could inherit the campaign money intended for the Biden/Harris ticket. As of the end of June, the campaign reported having $95 million, according to Politico.com.
A Few Debate Highlights
The recent debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance was rather refreshing compared to the two presidential debates. The two vice presidential candidates were respectful toward each other where they could have gone into attack modes. They agreed on a lot and it wouldn’t have been a surprise if they went out for drinks afterward.
Surprisingly, Walz’s nightmare of the fall of Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots and Vance’s connection to cat ladies, plus viral cat memes involving Haitians did not surface. However, the CBS moderators, just like ABC’s, interfered to negate the Republican candidate.
A fair exchange between Vance and Walz regarding climate change, especially in light of the recent hurricanes, was unfortunately marred by Norah O’Donnell. Instead of just moderating and asking questions, she joined the debate by helping Walz summarizing, “The overwhelming consensus among scientists is the earth’s climate is warming at an unprecedented rate.”
Vance had quite a highlight when he turned the table on moderator Margaret Brennan by calling her out for breaking their own rules by fact-checking candidates on the spot. Brennan summarized, “To clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status.” Vance continued about an application called the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection), leading to moderators cutting off the mics.
Regarding immigration, Vance said 320,000 children were “effectively lost” by the Department of Homeland Security — some were sex-trafficked, some were used as drug trafficking mules. Walz only refuted the statement by saying, “The drug mule is not true.”
The shocking report was just released in August stating children who crossed the border without parents were released to “qualified sponsors.” The sponsor doesn’t have to be a family member and the vetting process was allowed over the phone by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials. “At the very beginning of the Biden administration, they stripped all the vetting out of the process. The children are now at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor and other forms of exploitation,” as reported by the New York Post.
Despite the economy also as a top concern, the abortion issue is right up there and scares the hell out of WOMEN. There is such a controversy about the freedom to have choices over our bodies and the government needing to stay out of it. The Biden/Harris Administration violated that right when they enforced the vaccine mandate, which applied to EVERYONE (male and female, Federal, first responders, healthcare workers, etc.), or be fired.
Qualifications & Personalities
Pandora’s box opened when Brennan stated the Vice President is often the last voice the President hears before making consequential decisions and asked Walz about his leadership qualities. This struck a chord as Harris’ current role.
Keep in mind, in President Biden’s speech at the DNC, he spoke of how Harris was right there making decisions with him, which really may not have been a good thing. Harris has said she is not Biden and tried to distance herself from many of the poor decisions of their administration, which leave many in fear of the same old “playbook.”
Brennan included questioning Walz about conflicting reports of whether he was in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protest in the spring of 1989. Walz wouldn’t directly answer the question until pressed again.
Walz explained how he’s from a small rural town in Nebraska with a population of 400 and people know him. He went into quite a biographical spiel about teaching, taking sports teams to China, pouring his heart into his community, etc. Walz sprinkled in a couple admissions that he gets caught up in the rhetoric and is a knucklehead at times. When pressed again about the discrepancy (lie), he admitted he “misspoke” on this.
Walz seems like a very nice person, however, almost too nice to be in such a diplomatic position. He’s like a big white, soft teddy bear. Vance is sharp and esteemed but not “weird.” Out of the four candidates running as a team, Vance seemed to be more relatable to low-to-middle income people based on his humble background and being raised by his grandmother living below their means. The choice of a vice president needs to consider the BIG picture and not just who can get more votes.
This debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz was a good debate watched by more folks than other ones. Kammy was a very obvious DEI choice by Biden. He did not hide the fact that he wanted more females in his cabinet and that he actually preferred black females. This brings up the now common thought that if a person is having surgery, do they want the best surgeon or the DEI surgeon? It’s a valid point that needs to be considered in all positions.
JD vs Walz turned out to be more pleasant than expected. The worst part of the debate was the interference of the annoying moderators who decided to support the demo Walz by fact checking JD and by supporting Walz’s statements. They were terrible and they should be forced to take lower paying jobs. But demos never do that.
The third pic of a nice bear was well chosen to represent Walz. But is he qualified to be in such an important position in the USA and the world? He has a drunk driving record, he has been caught lying and or embellishing his resume for political gain. His trust is in question.
JD seems grounded and well adjusted. He is a veteran who used the GI bill to attend school to advance his position life. He has a wife, a woman of color with three young children. Hard working and good credentials. The VP job is much more important than once thought. They are one bullet away from being leader of the free world. This has to be considered. Lots learned. Good article.
I heard many good reviews of this debate and if only others could be like this. Vance had a lot of goofy stuff going around about him but hopefully people saw a more accurate view of him w/the debate. I didn’t know about the drunk driving record on Walz before but found it happened in 1995. Apparently, the arrest caused him to step down as a coach.
Biden did the same thing with his choice of a Supreme Court Justice. Black women only. Good way to secure that voting bloc. The DEI issue reminds me of Affirmative Action, which is rather insulting.
I always felt running mates were important, but in my lifetime, this is the closest I’ve seen to actually needing to replace the president. I like Vance’s age, although he has a lot to learn, he is better at voicing Trump’s opinions than Trump himself.